The closest you've come to even splits

What's the closest you come to running even splits in a marathon? I've raced 7 marathons and have never run a negative split but did only have a 53 second positive split at Boston this year 1:43:27/1:44:20. What about you?

in my first marathon, san francisco '11, i ran 3:10:13 with splits of 1:35:39 and 1:34:34. the funny thing is that i got dropped by the 3:10 pacers at halfway and never caught them despite hitting 3:10 exactly.

in 2012 i ran the san luis obispo marathon with splits of 1:26:10ish and 1:28:15ish for 2:54:25.

I've run only 4 marathons where I got an HM split but only have estimates from memory of actual times. Of the four I have one very large positive split, one very large negative split, one with a small positive split (1:29, 1:31), and one where I recall my splits being very even but no longer have the numbers (4 lap course with all 4 splits being 46-47 minutes).

I think it was Sunday. 2:24:24 @ the half and 4:47:00 overall. I'm not sure it should count since the half way point was about 500' higher than the finish. If it doesn't, the closest I've come is 3:00.

What's the closest you come to running even splits in a marathon? I've raced 7 marathons and have never run a negative split but did only have a 53 second positive split at Boston this year 1:43:27/1:44:20. What about you?

Food for thought: Stephen Kiprotich's 1st half in the London Olympic marathon was 1:03:32.

His final time was 2:08:01

And something else I've always thought about when the splits subject comes up: I'm assuming that for 99% of marathons, the temperature in the 2nd half is warmer than in the 1st half. That alone would be a factor.

I may have the record here. My official splits for the Philadelphia Marathon last November were 1:40:50 at the half and 3:21:39 at the finish for a second half slit of 1:40:49. A 1 second negative split.

I wasn't necessarily going for a perfect even split, it just worked out that way. I would have been 20-30 seconds more negative had I not stopped for a pee break around the 18 mile mark.

Like MattM's race, it would be interesting to see mile-by-mile, positive or negative splits to the average. Obviously hills, wind, etc. will have an impact, but it would show the more seasoned runners ability to run a determined pace.

In eight marathons I've had one small negative split due to pacing inexperience (my first race, when I didn't feel confident I could keep up my pace until near the end), one small and two large negative splits due to race topography (uphills early, downhills late), one large positive split (due to failure to adjust for recent injury and training hiatus), two small positive splits, and one race in which there were no mile markers and I didn't have a Garmin. My closest race to even splits was my PR at Houston with a 27 second positive split.

My closest was 1:42:23 for the first half and 1:41:43 for the second, so a 40 second negative split. Also my fastest and easiest-feeling marathon; there's definitely something to be said about good pacing!

Wasn't looking for the most negative split and having very little variance mile by mile would be difficult on most courses. I was just interested in seeing how many people run good tactical races and execute their plan. I seem to always over estimate my fitness or go out a bit fast. I'm a slow learner............

Originally Posted by MichaelMc:

Is the question "closest to even" or "most negetive" split?

I've run races where my pace hasn't varied by more than 5 seconds per mile either way, and ended roughly 20 seconds negetive.

My first 7 marathons were all around 10min positive splits, but my most recent ones have all been around +2/3min....my PR last month was +2:26. RunningWithMyDog, that is very true regarding warmer temps in the second half.

Hey Jim -- Big Sur is a negative split course, that's for sure. So is SFO. I ran a PR there negative 1:00 in 2010. My three fastest races are +1:00, +1:30 and +2:40, but I've been even or negative six times. Dead even in the rain this year at CIM; the start truly sucked. Ran Boston -11:30 this year (not full out though).

My closest out of ten races was at Illinois in 2012. 2:06:22/2:06:25, so a three-second positive split. Like some of the others, it was pretty much just an accident. It was the first marathon where I didn't fade.

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